Steve Conolly

Associate Professor, Bioengineering Visiting Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University Core Member, UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering 408D Stanley Hall mailcode: 1762 (510) 643-6075 fax: (510) 642-5835 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it http://bisl.berkeley.edu Membership effective July 2005

Research Interests

My lab develops innovations in MRI and Magnetic Particle Imaging for biomedical applications.

Research Summary

My lab is developing a low-cost method of MRI called Prepolarized MRI.   This is a radical new architecture for MRI scanners, and uses two pulsed electromagnets rather than the conventional superconducting magnet.  We first polarize the sample with a strong polarizing field and then image in a weak field, called the readout field.   Because the polarizing field has no imaging role, it can be quite inhomogeneous (~20%) so the magnet is simple to manufacture.  Because the readout field is weak, again it is simple to manufacture.  In addition, Prepolarized MRI shows great promise for imaging near metal implants.  We are also initiating new research projects on Magnetic Particle Imaging, which promises 1000-fold improvement in SNR over MRI for stem cell tracking.  And we are working on advanced fMRI pulse sequences that are robust near the air sinuses.   Finally we are developing a pyrolytic graphite foam to improve the field homogeneity inside humans in a conventional MRI scanner.

Selected Publications

    S. Conolly, D.G. Nishimura, A. Macovski, G. Glover, “Variable-Rate Selective Excitation,” J. Magn. Reson., 78(3):440–458, July 1988.
    A. Macovski and S.M. Conolly, “Novel Approaches to Low-Cost MRI,” Magn. Reson. Med., 30(2):221–230, Aug. 1993.
    “MR Imaging of Articular Cartilage using Driven Equilibrium,” Brian A. Hargreaves, Garry E. Gold, Phillip K. Lang, Steven M. Conolly, John M. Pauly, G. Bergman, J. Vandevenne, and Dwight G. Nishimura, Magn Reson Med., 42(4):695-703, Oct. 1999. 
    “Homogeneous Magnet Design Using Linear Programming,” Hao Xu, Steven Conolly, Greig Scott, Albert Macovski, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 36, No. 2, March 2000.
    “Low Readout Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Hyperpolarized Xenon-129 and Water in a Single System,” Wenjin Shao, B. A. Chronik, G. Wang, R. Fuzesy, G. C. Scott, S. M. Conolly, A. Macovski, E. Hughes Applied Physics Letters, 80, No. 11, March 2002.
    Sharon E. Ungersma, Blaine A. Chronik, Greig C. Scott, Albert Macovski, and Steven M. Conolly. Shim coil design using a linear programming algorithm. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 52(3):619–627, August 2004.  
    "Positive Contrast MRI of Cells Labeled with Magnetic Nanoparticles”, Charles H. Cunningham, Takyasu Arai, Phillip C. Yang, Michael V. McConnell, John M. Pauly, and Steven M. Conolly Magnetic Resonance Medicine 53(5): 999–1005, May 2005.
    Matter NI, Scott GC, Grafendorfer T, Macovski A, Conolly SM. “Rapid polarizing field cycling in magnetic resonance imaging,” IEEE Trans Med Imaging, 25(1):8493, Jan 2006.
    Lee J, Santos JM, Conolly SM, Miller KL, Hargreaves BA, Pauly JM. “Respirationinduced B0 field fluctuation compensation in balanced SSFP: Real-time approach for transition-band SSFP fMRI,” Magn Reson Med. 2006 May;55(5):1197-201.
    Ross D. Venook, Nathaniel I. Matter, Meena Ramachandran, Sharon E. Ungersma, Garry E. Gold, Nicholas J. Giori, Albert Macovski, Greig C. Scott, and Steven M. Conolly “Prepolarized MRI Around Metal Orthopedic Implants,” Magn Reson Med. 2006 Jul;56(1):177-86.
    N. I. Matter, G. C. Scott, R. D. Venook, S. E. Ungersma, T. Grafendorfer, A. Macovski, S. M. Conolly, “Three-dimensional prepolarized magnetic resonance imaging using rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement,” Magn Reson Med. 2006 Oct 6; 
     Nathaniel Matter, Blaine Chronik, John Pauly, Albert Macovski, Steven Conolly, and Greig Scott,
"Noise Performance of a Precision Pulsed Electromagnet Power Supply for Magnetic Resonance Imaging,"
Accepted to IEEE Transactions in Medical Imaging,  2007.